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The late 1980s and early 1990s were characterized by the sudden rise of nationalist movements in almost all Soviet ethnic regions. It is argued that the rise ofpoliticalnationalism since the late 1980s can be explained by the development ofculturalnationalism in the previous decades, as an unintended outcome of Communist nationalities policy. All ethnic regions are examined throughout the entire history of the USSR (49 regions, 1917–1991), using the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. This paper aims to make at least three contributions to the field. First, it is a methodological contribution for studying nationalism: a “quantification of history” approach. Having constructed variables from historical data, I use conventional statistical methods such as SEM. Second, this paper contributes to the theoretical debate about the role of cultural autonomy in multiethnic states. Finally, the paper statistically proves that the break between early Soviet and Stalinist nationalities policy explains the entire Soviet nationalities policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper offers hypotheses on the role that state social welfare measures can play in reflecting nationalism and in aggravating interethnic tensions. Social welfare is often overlooked in theoretical literature on nationalism, because of the widespread assumption that the welfare state promotes social cohesion. However, social welfare systems may face contradictions between the goal of promoting universal access to all citizens on the one hand, and social pressures to recognize particular groups in distinct ways on the other. Examples from the post-Soviet context (particularly Russia) are offered to illustrate the ways in which social welfare issues may be perceived as having ethnic connotations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, a body of scholarship arose which effectively bypassed Miroslav Hroch's work on the emergence of small nations. Rogers Brubaker, Yuri Slezkine and Ronald Suny, among others, persuasively argued that Soviet nationalities policies shaped the ethnogeographic make-up of the post-Soviet space some sixty or seventy years later: it had become literally almost unimaginable to conceive of national affiliation outside of institutionalized forms. This analysis also convincingly accounted for the relative weakness of ethnic Russian identity in contrast to the assertive nationalism of non-Russian nationalities around the time of the USSR's collapse. The Kuban' Cossacks - an ethnocultural community in the south of Russia - never had official recognition as a Soviet nationality. Hroch's framework can be applied to show their clearly national characteristics and, indeed, their progress towards nationhood around the turn of the twentieth century. By reclaiming Hroch's framework for the post-Soviet context, and combining it with later scholarship, we are able to identify this process for the first time, and thus further refine our understanding of the nation-formation processes within Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article, a response to the article "Stalin's populism and the accidental creation of Russian national identity" elsewhere in the issue by David Brandenberger, critiques his thesis that modern Russian nationalism has its origins in the russocentric populism promoted by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in the 1930s and 40s. Brandenberger's argument is seen as needing more historical context, both by better defining nationalism and national identity in post-Soviet Russia, and by examining debates in the pre-Stalinist Soviet Union about chauvinism versus the goal of a multi-ethnic state.

The article focuses on the perception of politically institutionalized anti-Semitism in elite Soviet Russian universities and the impact this had on Jewish identity of those who were among the Soviet Russian intellectual elite. Using the narrative biographic enquiry model, the personal reminiscences of 22 Russian academic emigrants who held Soviet citizenship regarding discrimination against Soviet Russian Jews in the 1970s and 1980s in colleges and universities in Moscow, Russia are explored. Other objectives of the author's research include illustrating details of elimination and comparing institutionalized anti-Semitism with that of folk-anti-Semitism.

The article reports on the nature of Russia's national characteristic, the theme of "Russia and the West" in Post-Soviet culture in particular. It focuses on the "imaginary West" perceived by Russian writers and cultural figures rather than on the historical, social and political realities of the Western Europe or the United States at any given time. In relation, Post-Soviet cinema and literature which display a complex blend of influences is also mentioned.